Posh at the Mic

Net-a-Porter celebrated Victoria Beckham with a Bowery Hotel dinner last night. Tennessee Thomas deejayed the cocktail hour (make that hours—Beckham arrived very fashionably late) and recalled early memories of VB: "Well, Victoria had all the best lines in Spice World. She was all about sophistication, which was hugely influential on me. A young girl has got to learn it from somewhere, so why not the Spice Girls?" NAP founder Natalie Massenet shared a story from her days at Tatler, when she styled a couture shoot at the Ritz with a young Victoria Adams. The pop star had never been shot without her fellow bandmates. (She had also just gone on a date with some footballer by the name of David Beckham.) "I don't think in that room at the Ritz, Victoria ever knew that one day she would be honored as one of the best designers in the U.K., but she is very, very driven. There are so many people here tonight whose careers have grown and changed over the years—hopefully everyone realizes how far their dreams have taken them." When Beckham finally made her toast to the room, servers passed out shots of tequila with lime wedges. "We have to not behave ourselves," she said. "We have to drink a lot and dance a lot this evening—and maybe I'll get back on the microphone."



Meanwhile, guests including Leandra Medine , Dree Hemingway, and Chloe Norgaard joined Clare Waight Keller and architect Joseph Dirand in raising a glass to Chloé's divine new digs on Madison Avenue. The renovation earned a rave from Maggie Gyllenhaal , too, earlier spotted test-driving a pair of the line's oversize summer shades. "I've been wearing a lot of Chloé lately. I've been very drawn to it because it's both very easygoing and refined at the same time—which I can't always achieve, but which is what I'm always going for!"



Style was a talking point of Alber Elbaz 's speech at the FIT Gala. The Lanvin designer introduced one of the evening's three award winners, Bergdorf Goodman's Linda Fargo . "We're living in a world all about machinery and high tech, but fashion remains a human industry, because all we are is a bunch of seamstresses—dreams, a yard of fabric, a needle, and a thread. And in this world, you, Linda, remain different, unique, and very loyal. How rare is that?"

—Todd Plummer, Kristin Anderson, and Nicole Phelps